The Hellenistic Philosophers, Volume 1: Translations of the Principal Sources with Philosophical Commentary

Citation

Long, A. A., & Sedley, D. N. (1987). The Hellenistic Philosophers, Volume 1: Translations of the Principal Sources with Philosophical Commentary. Cambridge University Press.

Chapter Summary

The volume runs to about 524 pages. It is the English half of a two-volume work: volume 1 offers new translations by the authors with philosophical and historical commentary, while volume 2 supplies the Greek and Latin texts with notes and bibliography. After a preface and an introduction, the book is arranged by school in five sections, followed by indexes; a glossary is also part of the volume. The preface describes the project as a collection and discussion of the primary sources for the Stoics, Epicureans, Pyrrhonists and Academics, whose thought dominated philosophy in the three centuries after Aristotle's death in 322 BC.

Preface and Introduction: The Schools (pp. xi–xvi, 1–10)

The preface explains the two-volume design and says volume 1 is meant to be usable by readers with no historical background in the classical world and, with its glossary and indexes, to be self-sufficient. The introduction, headed "The Schools," opens with an imagined return of Aristotle to Athens in 272 BC and explains how the conquests of Alexander and the pull of Athens, home of the schools founded by Plato and Aristotle, produced a more diverse and more self-consciously systematic philosophy. A two-page section headed "Translations and commentary" (pp. 11–12) follows.

Early Pyrrhonism (pp. 13–24)

The shortest section begins with scepticism and the figure of Pyrrho: an excerpt from Diogenes Laertius reports his career and his practice of non-cognition and suspension of judgement, and states that he held that nothing is honourable or base, just or unjust, and that convention and habit underlie human conduct.

Epicureanism (pp. 25–157)

This section opens with physics, starting from the principles of conservation: Epicurus's Letter to Herodotus and Lucretius are given as sources for the thesis that nothing comes into being out of what is not and that the totality of things does not change into anything else. The section runs to about 133 pages.

Stoicism (pp. 158–437)

The largest section, about 280 pages, begins with the philosophical curriculum. Aetius and Diogenes Laertius record the Stoic division of philosophical discourse into physics, ethics and logic and the analogies by which the Stoics illustrated the relation among these parts, such as a living being, an egg and a fertile field.

The Academics (pp. 438–467)

The section on the Academics begins with methodology: a passage from Cicero's Academica in which the Academic position is traced to Arcesilaus's struggle with Zeno and to earlier thinkers who said that nothing could be grasped or cognized.

The Pyrrhonist Revival (pp. 468–488)

The last section begins with why to suspend judgement. Diogenes Laertius records Aenesidemus's account of Pyrrho and the sceptics' end of suspension of judgement, followed by freedom from disturbance, and Photius reports the aim of Aenesidemus's Pyrrhonist Discourses as establishing that there is no firm basis for cognition.

Indexes (pp. 489–512)

The preface and the publisher both point to the glossary and indexes as what make the volume usable on its own.

Key Concepts

Schools and curriculum

• Epicureanism: introduced through its physics, beginning with principles of conservation.
• Stoicism: organized by the division of philosophy into physics, ethics and logic.
• Academic scepticism: the position traced to Arcesilaus, who denied that anything could be grasped or cognized.
• Pyrrhonism: scepticism associated with Pyrrho and revived by Aenesidemus.

Key ideas introduced

• Suspension of judgement: withholding assent, which the Pyrrhonists named as their end, followed by freedom from disturbance.
• Conservation principles: nothing comes from nothing, and the whole does not change into anything else.
• Primary sources and commentary: ancient reports are translated with numbered paragraphs and source references, then explained in commentary.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Self-contained for English readers. The preface says the volume is entirely in English, usable without a classical background, and with its glossary and indexes designed to be self-sufficient. The Cambridge description repeats that it can stand alone.
• New translations and commentary designed for all readers. The translations are the authors' own, and the commentary is described as philosophical and historical and designed for all readers, including those with no background in the classical world.
• Four schools in one place. A single volume covers Epicureans, Stoics, Academic sceptics and Pyrrhonists with the evidence in primary sources, rather than relying on later summaries.
• Traceable sources. Each excerpt is labelled with its ancient source and passage numbers, such as Diogenes Laertius 9.61–2, with numbered paragraphs, so readers can follow references in scholarship.

Limitations

• Half of a pair. The preface places the Greek and Latin texts, critical apparatus, context information, supplementary commentary on technical points and some additional texts in volume 2. Readers who need to check a translation or see the original must obtain it.
• Uneven proportions. Stoicism takes about 280 of the roughly 475 pages of main text, while Early Pyrrhonism takes 12, the Academics 30 and the Pyrrhonist revival 21; courses on scepticism will find less space than courses on the Stoics.
• A sourcebook, not a narrative. The structure is fragments and testimonia with commentary, so a reader without a history of the period will need a companion, and the book is not designed to be read straight through.

Where It Fits in the Course

This volume is the course's sourcebook for the period after Aristotle and is best read after Plato and Aristotle. Peter Adamson's Classical Philosophy offers a narrative in many short chapters, the Cooper edition of Plato's Complete Works and Irwin's translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics supply the primary texts of the philosophers whose schools the Hellenistic thinkers found in Athens, and Catherine Osborne's short introduction gives the earlier period.

The nearest relative is Kirk, Raven and Schofield's The Presocratic Philosophers. The preface says that the scope and purpose of the work closely resemble that book, but that the material is divided between two volumes. The two share a format: selected ancient texts with commentary arranged by thinker or school. Used together they make a sequence from the first philosophers to the schools that followed Aristotle.

How to Use This Book

The book is for students who have had a first course in ancient philosophy covering Plato and Aristotle. No Greek or Latin is needed for this volume.

Begin with the preface and the introduction, "The Schools," under twenty pages in all. After that, choose by course content. A course on a single school can read its section with commentary, using the opening excerpt as orientation: the curriculum for Stoicism, physics for Epicureanism. A course on scepticism can read Early Pyrrhonism, the Academics and the Pyrrhonist revival together, about 63 pages. Because Stoicism and Epicureanism are large, plan to read them selectively by topic.

Read each excerpt before its commentary, note the ancient source and whether it is a direct quotation or a report, and compare reports of the same school from different authors. Use the glossary and indexes to track a technical term across sections. Scholars working with the texts in the original languages should use volume 2 alongside.